Many digital programmable thermostats possess a display screen of a size that is limited by the necessary placement of control buttons around the display. A touch-screen thermostat can enable the display size to be increased by incorporating the buttons into the display device. A touch screen thermostat can also provide more area for displaying additional information to the user. However, the typical thermostat does not possess the network interface or processing capacity to enable the thermostat to obtain information from an external source. Furthermore, obtaining information through connection with an external source would require the user to tediously enter a series of inputs to request specific information, and the external source to complete a series of searches or operations to locate and retrieve the requested information. A user of a thermostat would not likely request the thermostat to obtain such desired information, given the difficulty of the user entering a request to the thermostat, and the operations involved in retrieving the information.